Chicken Artichoke Avocado Salad

with creamy feta artichoke dressing

Crunchy chicken with creamy avocado and tangy artichokes on a bed of crunchy salad mix with juicy sweet tomatoes, chopped smokehouse almonds and fresh basil, with crumbled marinated feta and a creamy feta artichoke dressing.

Spring speaks to me in flowers, green leaves … and salads. I made this salad earlier this spring, at the first signs of spring awakenings. After this COVID winter, I was SO anxious for the weather to warm and to see things to start growing! I was lucky on that day that my indoor basil plant was flowering, and I sprinkled those pretty flowers all over my salad. If you’ve never done that, you are missing out! Those flowers add so many tiny specks of beauty to the salad and they have the same beautiful fresh basil flavor you get from the leaves, with a little more intensity.

The cherry tomatoes I’d bought at the market were starting to fade, but they still had plenty of juicy sweet goodness to share with the salad. I gathered a bunch of veggies from my veggie drawer to make the salad mix: fresh romaine, crunchy red cabbage (the last of the head from my sister’s garden last fall! amazingly still beautiful and crunchy … garden cabbage keeps for so long if you peel off the leaves as you use it), chopped mini sweet peppers, matchstick carrots and some sweet onion, sliced thin.

Can I use a pre-chopped salad mix?

Technically the answer is yes … but you’re going to get a whole lot better flavor and better nutrition if you take the time to chop the veggies yourself. Even better if you get your veggies from your local farmer’s market or use organic veggies as your salad mix ingredients. Why? Pre-chopped salad mixes use chemical preservatives to keep them “fresh” and those preservatives kind of suck the life out of the flavor. If you want to use a salad mix, even if your salad mix says it’s pre-washed, it’s still a good idea to wash your salad mix. But then use a salad spinner or CLEAN kitchen towel to get rid of the excess moisture. Personally, I quit buying pre-made salad mixes many many years ago and I think you’ll find a much more satisfying salad experience if you use quality salad ingredients AND you clean and chop them up yourself. Get yourself a good chef knife and go to town! Chopping veggies can be very meditative and relaxing.

For the chicken: we had some leftover breaded chicken tenders in the fridge which I heated up in my air fryer, but you could crisp them up in the oven (or toaster oven). Or if you prefer, just chop up some leftover chicken and toss it on. Don’t worry, there’s plenty of crunch going on in the salad mix already, and when you add the crunchy almonds, you’ve got more than enough crunch factor.

Once you layer on the smooth factor with the avocado, marinated feta crumbles and the creamy artichoke lemon yogurt dressing, I think you’ll find this dinner salad has it all going on. Sit on the patio, soak in the sounds, scents and all the other signs of spring and enjoy!

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